Meeting Ian Lillington at The Yard cafe, Stroud

I drove Helena and her friend G to Cheltenham Spa station early this morning so they could catch the first of a series of trains taking them to Scotland. Helena is going to visit her mum, K., who now lives in a village north of Oban in Argyll. As it happens the journeys became problematic for a variety of reasons which I’m sure she’ll describe in her blip.

On my return at about midday I got a message from an 'Ian', who is visiting from his home in Australia. We’d been introduced online by a friend of mine as we’ve had mutual interests in Permaculture for a very long time, without knowing each other. Ian was unexpectedly visiting Stroud today and suggested that we meet up. Having time to chat over a coffee was a very good idea. You can exchange and learn a lot in just an hour with a stranger!

Ian suggested recording a picture of us together. He wanted to feature the VHS video I’d filmed back in 1992 with  Bill Mollison, one of the two originators of permaculture. Bill came to Stroud to give a couple of public talks in 1992, and to meet up to give some guidance to a group of local people who were intending to start a Sustainable Village Project locally. My good friend Annie W. and her friend Emma I. had arranged Bill’s visit and I stayed with Bill for a few days at Annie’s house. At the time I was working in the tv business in London and Bill agreed to let me interview him for a video of us ‘in conversation’ to be able to let people meet him and get to know his personality and thinking in a less structured way.

For some time Ian has been gathering a history of permaculture globally so was keen to meet up for a chat. Hopefully we can now keep in contact and I might be able to add some more information to his archives. Just before leaving Kat arrived with her two kids to take Ian back to her home where he has been staying recently. She kindly agreed to take a picture of us together for the record, although I must admit to looking in terrible shape after only recently recovering from a bout of Covid. 

If you don’t know anything about Bill Mollison or permaculture do take a look at this article. It is an obituary of Bill that Ian wrote for one of the main Australian newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald after he died in 2016 at the age of 88 years.


I’ve added an extra of Kat and her daughter O as I like the picture of them both. Kat had brought her two kids to Stroud so they could go to a worship teaching circus skills!